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Monday, April 25, 2011

Little Miss Know-It-All

My daughter has a tendency to correct me about everything! She'll even find fault where there is none. For example, she'll correct the way I pronounced a word even if I had pronounced it correctly. This can get really annoying. I also worry how it effects her relationship with her friends at school. Nobody like a know-it-all, right?

Our school is having its big annual fundraiser soon. Each class is responsible for collecting items toward a really cool basket for a silent auction. Our class's basket is going to be called "Eager Reader." The flyer detailing information about the basket requested the parents to bring in new books and games. I went to Target and selected the Mousetrap game. I figured it would appeal to almost all ages of kids and took some brainpower to do. I was really proud of my selection!

When we were leaving for school the other day, I gave my daughter the game to hold for the drive. She looked at the game disdainfully and said, "Our basket is the Eager Reader basket. This is a game. It has nothing to do with reading!" I hated being put on the defensive, but I told her that the flyer said we could get games also, and I thought this would be a good game. I also said that the fun thing about a basket is that it contains a lot of different type of items. A basket only containing books would be kind of boring! I then told her that the game required using logic skills that go hand-in-hand with developing good reading skills. I think I was laying it on a bit thick with the last argument, but I felt like I needed to defend my choice a bit.

When we arrived at school, my daughter wanted the honor of carrying the game over to where her class lines-up. As she approached her classmates, they all jumped on her like a school of piranhas. She was met with a chorus of, "That's not a book!" "Our basket is called the Eager Reader!" "Why are you bringing that in today; We're supposed to bring items in next week!" My daughter didn't know how to respond to this onslaught. I jumped in telling them that the flyer told us we could bring in games, and you have to read the instructions to play the game (desperate times call for desperate excuses). I told them the next week was spring break, and the fundraising committee wanted the contributions before then. Ack!

It immediately occurred to me that my daughter's quirk of correcting everything I say or do wasn't a quirk affiliated with autism. It's a quirk with being a first-grader. Something tells me this quirk isn't going away any time soon!

One little boy who arrived at the arrival area a little late looked at the game and yelled, "Mousetrap? I LOVE that game!" Finally, a breath of fresh air!